


Shawn Makes a Call in the Dark

by sebviathan



Series: if it's all right, then you're all wrong [2]
Category: Psych
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode Tag, Episode: s04e09 Shawn Takes a Shot In the Dark, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, basically i made the episode better, but still within the confines of how a psych episode can be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-03 10:38:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10965522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebviathan/pseuds/sebviathan
Summary: When Shawn is allowed his "goodbye" call, he dials Lassiter's number.





	Shawn Makes a Call in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> [BTW, it literally would have made so much more sense for Shawn to call Lassiter than Juliet.](http://bassiter.tumblr.com/post/160783889558/i-cant-believe-its-taken-me-this-long-to-realize)

For the past three-and-a-half years, probably the most notable asset that Spencer has brought to the SBPD has been his propensity for getting something out of nothing. For finding a case where there wasn't one. Turning an accident or a suicide into a murder investigation.

It's something that Carlton rarely does or has even been able to do, in all his years of detective work. Some (notably Spencer) might say that he too often accepts "the easy answer"—but what he  _really_  does is go with logic. He goes with what he can _observe_ , and not hunches. Mere hunches are too much of a risk to waste time and resources on.

Spencer's hunches, however... have a propensity to be right. And Carlton has known for a while now that most of those hunches are based on _something_ _—_ a detail that absolutely no one else could have noticed, or a related event that no one else could have remembered.

Or even purely a display of intricate cognitive empathy, which no one else, least of all Carlton, would have been able to do.

Perhaps after all this time, though, watching Spencer work under the guise of being a psychic has taught him a few things. Perhaps he had it in him all along and Spencer's unwavering confidence in his own instincts has simply rubbed off on him? Regardless, standing here with Guster and O'Hara at 4:30 AM, Spencer supposedly missing... His heart is racing, and his eyes are moving much more quickly around the junkyard than they have at any crime scene.

What he sees that gets him is a string of small puddles, a few feet away from the other, much larger puddles. Normally, he wouldn't have looked twice. Right now, the pieces are flying together into a terrifying realization.

_Shawn has been shot, and I am crouched in front of a puddle of his blood._

 

_*_

 

If Shawn remembers correctly (and hasn't simply projected his current bitterness toward his dad onto his childhood memories), the thing that sparked Henry into teaching him how to escape the trunk of a car was that, one day, he neglected to tell him the correct amount of hats in a room.

"You're getting soft on me," Henry had told him, an _eleven year-old_. And then proceeded to lock him in the trunk of the car, right in front of the house where neighbors could see.

If only Henry could see him now.

Really, if fucking _only_ _—_ Lassiter and his dad are _right_ out there, right through the window... And all they would have to do would be to come inside or look through the window and they would _see him_ , duct-taped and bleeding and Garth Longmore constricting his neck so he can't cry out—

Certainly not for lack of trying.

Rationally, Shawn knows he won't possibly get a sound out. Not one that would make it through the walls, anyway. Garth clearly picked up a few tricks when he was out in his spec ops missions, and one of them was knowing precisely how to keep someone's voice box from working without depriving them of air.

But something makes him feel like, like if he just _stares_ at Lassiter and mentally screams his name as hard as he can... maybe that alone could give the other man the feeling that he's in here. Or at least will him to take a peek in the window.

All he gets out is a few chokes with the shape of an 'L' desperately straining on his tongue, and neither Lassiter nor his dad even look in his direction before they walk off.

God, if only he was the _slightest_ bit of an actual psychic.

 

*

 

In the back of his mind, something seems just slightly off about that mechanic. Maybe it's that he's too polite for such a greasy-looking man in such a blue-collar line of work, or that he reacts to their questions too much like a one-off character on Law & Order.

But Henry doesn't let him get a word in, and Carlton is out of breath anyway, and they simply do not have _time_ to entertain every Spencer-esque hunch that crosses his mind.

"My God, it's just like working with _Shawn_ ," he says, and he's not entirely referring to the older Spencer trying to take over this case.

After that, it can't be more than five minutes of hiking toward the next gas station before Carlton's cellphone rings, and he catches a glimpse of the Caller ID—

And his heart stops.

" _It's Shawn_ ," Carlton and Henry both say at the same time, followed by the latter—

"Put it on speaker!"

He does, but instinctively pulls the phone up to his ear anyway.

"Shawn, where are you?"

"This call... is to say goodbye," comes Shawn's ragged voice through the phone. Carlton is almost too relieved just to know that Shawn is _alive_ to even wonder what that's supposed to mean.

" _Goodbye?_ " Henry says, wide-eyed, and then Carlton shushes him.

"Shawn, you _need_ to tell us where you are, we're gonna find you—"

"Don't... don't ask me any questions because I can't say anything else," Shawn says. "If you care about me then you'll understand."

"The hell do you mean _don't ask you_ _—_?" Carlton starts, but then Henry shushes _him_.

"He's probably being monitored by whoever got him," he whispers urgently.

 _Fuck._ Though Carlton can't imagine how Spencer is managing to even _have_ a phone call in that case.

Fuck.

"Alright, I understand."

"...I'm not gonna be able to have... much of a future anymore, but—back at where we were, I'll be there, okay?"

" _No_ _—_ we are _going_ to find you, Shawn—"

"The wind chimes that I got you for your birthday...," Shawn continues, like he didn't even hear him. "Every time you hear them... from now on, that'll be me."

With that, Henry jerks just far enough away to give him an absolutely bizarre look.

"Carlton, are you—are you _dating_ my son—?"

"What?—No, I have no idea what he's— _Shawn_ ," he says, turning his attention back to what matters and ignoring the heat rising to his face. "For _once_ , can you just tell us what the hell you're talking about, or give us _something_ in plain English—"

"Listen, before—before I go, I have to say... one more thing."

"If it doesn't lead to us saving your life, I'm gonna kill you myself." Henry promptly hits him on the arm, and he swears he hears a slight chuckle on Shawn's end.

"...I need you to know that... I love you."

For all the terror and urgency he feels for Spencer's life, Carlton freezes. And his throat seems to constrict. And the words seem to echo.

He _has_ heard those words come out of Spencer's mouth several times before, but always in a flippant or joking manner. In a way that he's always chalked up to the guy either just being the type to feel some platonic "love" for everyone, or simply joking, or even purposely playing with his feelings. In a way that he could never risk taking seriously.

But he's never heard it sound so even, or soft.

And being shot and in a position where he very possibly may die sure is a means for even a guy like Spencer to get serious.

Carlton's throat burns, and his face burns, and his heart pounds painfully in his chest which _also_ fucking burns, and he... for a moment, is able to push terror aside and respond.

"...Dammit, Shawn, I—"

His tongue is halfway curled into an _L_ when he hears,

"Goodbye, Abigail." Then Shawn hangs up.

Oh.

Oh, _god_. Of _course_ he wasn't saying it to _him_ , it was part of whatever last-resort distraction Shawn was pulling to stay _alive_ , and he's an _idiot_ _—_

And Henry is giving him that look of utter bewilderment again, but only for a split second before the man's eyes seem to light up.

"Wait! Shawn _did_ give us something— _back where we were_? _Windchimes_ , Lassiter! He's at the gas station!"

Henry immediately starts running back in the direction they came from, somehow with much more energy despite being so much older. Carlton is starting to think it might be the kind of life-or-death adrenaline that only a parent could have.

But now he knows that, for all that the Spencer family can notice and remember things faster and _better_ than him... his first instinct was _right_.

 

*

 

Carlton rushes the front entrance, gun at the ready, and Henry in tow despite not having a weapon on him. But he has no time to care about the man's refusal to accept his authority at the moment.

Because at once, he spots the mechanic from before, pointing a gun to the back of what is very clearly _Spencer_ , and the noise quickly alerts him to their presence.

All in no more than two seconds, he twists around, takes aim at Carlton, but before he can get a shot out is brought to the floor by a bullet in the neck.

Now with no hand to drag him or otherwise support him, and with his limbs still bound, Shawn stumbles back and falls to the floor. But, delirious as he is, he manages to look over in a flood of relief.

"Dad! Lassie!"

Henry is indeed the first one to start running in his son's direction—Carlton takes a second to snap out of his rage, and his hands still fumble in retrieving his phone so he can call an ambulance. For three people, apparently, as he notices another man dead on the floor.

By the time he's at Shawn's side, Henry has already cut the rope off of his wrists with a pocketknife, and started on the duct tape around his ankles.

Shawn, meanwhile, is just staring at him with a dazed sort of smile, his non-injured arm outstretched.

"Well, if it isn't _Sergeant Martin_ _Riggs_!" he laughs. "You totally just shot that guy _right_ in the middle of his _throat_..."

Shawn's hand brushes his chest, and that combined with adrenaline and a lack of oxygen flow to his brain has him feeling pleasantly delirious. Perhaps Carlton isn't such an idiot after all.

But he still frowns, after a moment.

"Who the hell is Martin Riggs?"

"Oh shit! Dad—that makes you Murtaugh, and that makes _me_ Rianne which is actually such a solid fit that I gotta wonder if it's even a coincidence... Now, who does that make Gus—?

"God dammit, Shawn," Henry finally snaps, while Carlton is still completely confused. "I can't believe that even _getting shot_ can't get you to shut up about Lethal Weapon."

 _Oh my god,_ Carlton merely thinks. Not just because that's what Spencer has been talking about, but also because now that he's remembering it, it's actually _eerie_ how similar the movie is to this situation.

"To be fair, you guys... I am in the absolute worst pain of my life," Shawn tells them, grinning probably a little too wide. He looks directly at Lassie again, who stares back with an unprecedented intensity. "Let me have this."

O'Hara and Guster bust through the door less than ten seconds later, and Carlton can't help but feel deeply grateful that he's now obligated to back off and let Spencer reunite with his partner.

If he's being honest with himself, he's even grateful to have Henry tag along. He doesn't know what he'd be doing if it was just him and Shawn here.

 

*

 

Oh, sweet, sweet morphine.

The only downside is that it makes him a little too pliable to Henry's questioning. Which is _not_ questioning, he insists, just _conversation_ , I mean can't a father just _talk_ to his son who's just been shot?

Except it's only a flesh wound because Shawn was shot by a guy who would feel too guilty to even shatter his clavicle and risk letting him die by infection—so there's no reason to worry. Henry especially has never been the type to worry irrationally, even about his own son.

But of course, he's not talking to feel better about Shawn's livelihood, or at least he'd never admit to it in so many words.

No, he just wants to know exactly how Shawn survived.

"I s'pose what I'm hung up on," Henry says, leaning back in his chair beside Shawn's hospital bed, "is that you couldn't possibly have just been relying on Garth—or whatever his real name is—being a big softie. At least not the whole time."

"That's just the thing, Dad—if he wasn't a romantic at heart, I wouldn't have even survived the initial shot!" He says that mainly to make Henry uncomfortable, and it looks like it worked. Then, he adds, "And I had my wits about me regardless. If I hadn't had access to my phone, I'm sure I could have at least stalled long enough for you or Lassie or Jules to figure it out anyway."

"You mean by making other obscure movie references to a couple of guys holding guns to your head?"

"First of all, Lethal Weapon is hardly obscure. It was a _defining_ film franchise for the action genre—and second of all! It wouldn't have made too much sense without the context of you and Lassie. Honestly, I sailed through it with mostly plain banter."

"Yeah, uh—don't think I'd call what happened ' _sailed_ ,' kid."

"So I got a few bumps, whatever," Shawn shrugs—and then remembers one of his shoulders has a hole in it, at which he winces in pain. "But you know what, the more I think about it, the more I realize I've been super lucky this whole time. First, I _survive_. Then, by some miracle I know _exactly_ what to do in the case of being kidnapped—"

"If by miracle you mean _me_ ," Henry practically growls. Shawn grins as he continues—

"And then not only do the Bad Guys leave my phone intact, but the dude in charge of the gun has a _weakness_ and it's the most cliche weakness of all time, _love_ , so all I gotta do is call one of the two people who just walked by where I'm trapped, and leave pretty obvious clues... all while pretending to call my girlfriend. He didn't even make me put the call on speaker! Oh, and I don't know if you're mad that I didn't call _you_ , but I'm not gonna lie—I knew it'd be _much_ less awkward to say 'I love you' to Lassie than my dad. Infinitely less, even."

At least his current dose of morphine doesn't make him tell the other half of that.

Still, Henry folds his arms, puts on a smirk, and tells him,

"You know, the crazy thing about that is... I was there, watching and listening to him take the call, and... I could've _sworn_ Lassiter was about to say it back to you."

Looks like his dad caught that too.

And there's no _really_ hiding how he feels about that, what with the heart monitor putting his pulse on a screen that they can both see and hear. But he maintains a casual expression for his own dignity.

"Eh, he was probably just—about to tell me that you guys were coming for me, or that he thinks I'm an idiot, or... that he was gonna kill me if I wound up dying. Or something." He breathes a laugh and shrugs again, but only with the good shoulder this time.

Shawn doesn't know whether or not that's what he _wants_ to believe, but he does know that thinking about the end of that call makes him feel all sorts of things, and, most notably... that the heart monitor is beeping distinctly faster than before.

Henry makes an obvious glance towards it, but then simply shrugs himself.

"Mm... Yeah, you're probably right."

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, the car chase wouldn't get to happen, and the "nice shooting, detective" scene also wouldn't get to happen, but it's a small price to pay for Lassiter very nearly saying Those Three Words™.
> 
> Regarding the Lethal Weapon references: 
> 
> -it's a buddy cop film full of the usual bickering  
> -Martin Riggs is depressed over the loss of his wife, whose name was Victoria.  
> -Murtaugh is a 50 y/o sergeant with children  
> -Rianne is Murtaugh's oldest daughter who gets kidnapped in the first film and also has an extremely canonical crush on Riggs


End file.
